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Ponds & Aquatic Plants

New lawn mower................poor frog

15 years ago

We got a new electric mower for the back yard. I thought it would be much gentler on everything back there, than the gas-powered one. Hubby started it up and within 5 seconds he'd run over one of my frogs. :(

What a bummer. Sorry little one.

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Comments (5)

jenion
15 years ago
I was mowing last week and I looked up to see a toad running for it. I stopped and put her next to the pond. During the next couple of days, she laid a bunch of eggs, so I've got tadpoles now.

Jenion
comettose
15 years ago
I killed a toad with my lawn mower once. It was up against the fence in the tall grass. I felt bad about it. Now I kick around in areas where I can't see that well before I mow. I have to watch for baby rabbits too.

Right now I don't have any frogs and have seen only two toads and heard one tree frog. No spring peepers this year. First time since 2003 I do not have frogs at my pond. I started with 5 in spring, then just two weeks ago there were two, and a few days ago none. They were big frogs too. Something must have eaten them. I had a bumper crop of Garter snakes last summer but haven't seen any of them either. No salamanders either. I do have a pesky hawk but have only seen it kill birds. I opened my garage early on Friday morning and right outside the door all my potted plants were overturned and there was part of a mouse. Further down the driveway a bit more of the mouse, and out on the street a big bird poop. I think I startled a hawk that was eating the mouse just outside my garage door.

I've been loaded with hawks since I feed the birds year round. I also have a pair of crows that show up every day. I guess these birds are big enough to get bullfrogs, snakes and toads.
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Oh, I wish I had thought of GardenWeb four years ago! I rescued a batch of tadpoles from the spring draining of my above-ground swimming pool cover, thinking they'd morph out into frogs and go their merry way. Unfortunately (or delightfully, actually) the spring draining didn't happen until mid-summer that year and the tadpoles I saved got a late start. I had set up a tadpole pond for them on the picnic table, on a covered patio. A wisteria branch pulled over to the "pond" was to serve as their highway out. But, come October, I still had about two dozen tadpoles in various stages of metamorphosis and it got cold. Too cold for a container that held water only 2.5" deep. They can take extreme cold, but frozen solid? I had my doubts. My happy mistake was bringing them inside. You have NO idea how labor intensive it is to raise baby treefrogs until you do it. I ended up with five different terrariums set up, for tadpoles, froglets, and frogs; heat lamps; flightless fruitfly cultures in my bedroom; crickets over the heat vent in my bathroom; and it took 9 months for it to get warm enough and them to get large enough to release. They had to be fed at least twice a day and keeping up with the tank cleaning and their food supply made it a full-time job. In the end, some went to live at Zoo Atlanta and some to Fernbank Science Center, with much gratitude to the herpetologists at both places who were gracious and patient enough to answer all my over the course of their little froggie beginnings. Was it worth it? Well, I did it all over again the next year. LOL I had all the equipment and a lot more knowledge, so I wouldn't be totally lost during a second run. I didn't really plan to repeat the experience, though. I only wanted to see if a spoonful of eggs... EGGS, not tadpoles, would be viable, having been laid in chlorinated pool water. All 48 turned into tadpoles! They were the size of that exclamation point, but just large enough to get my heart. Again. My frogs were Cope's Gray Treefrogs. First year, I lost six out of 26. The next year, I didn't lose a single frog. Of the 48 I started with, most morphed out and were released before winter. I ended up raising the last dozen. That dozen now reside at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga (thanks to a dear friend and fellow froglet raiser who is a volunteer shark tank diver at the aquarium.) I just found this thread today and can't wait to read it all. I have a time crunch, so I could only read about half before I stopped to write this. Love frogs? I adore them. I'll post pictures from my adventure when I can find time to upload them from the little digital discs to my computer.
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Comments (63)
Irawon, And they make very pretty, interesting terrarium pets, too. I kept some that I caught on LI in a 30 gallon long tank with a 3D ledge background, some branch sections to climb and bask on, using a substrate of microfine coconut fiber (comes under various brand names). They are very cute, although aggressive to one another. You can only keep ONE male per colony or they'll fight to the death. I found that even females can be aggressive to one another. I was taking a summer class earlier this summer at the city college down the block. Every single day, when I'd walk home from class, there were 2 Italian Wall lizards on the same exact ledge, in the same exact place, every day. It was cute having "my" lizards waiting for me each day!
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Comments (23)
lol, Paula. That is just what I was thinking when this thread was resurrected! I was wondering if everyone else had missed the frogs as much as I had after far too many quiet years. Long ago, probably in the summer of 2006, after southern OK had suffered through the drought years of the early 2000s (except for 2004) and especially the drought of 2005-06, we had a summer rainstorm. We sat out under the covered patio and watched the frogs come out of the lily pond and hop all over from puddle to puddle while it was still raining. I think we got almost 4" that day in just a couple of hours. After the rain, still sitting under the patio cover (and listening on our fire radios to firefighters at the north end of the county fighting a haybarn fire starting, unfortunately, by lightning) we watched a rainbow appear and we watched the frogs for an hour or two. A few days later, everyone in our neighborhood was out frantically trying to catch up on mowing and trimming, and we often stopped for conversations with passers-by while mowing down by the road. At such times, our road is more like a sidewalk..... The funny thing was that when we compared notes on the rainy day, we found that other neighbors also were sitting on porches and covered patios, watching the frogs. It was too funny. We poked fun at ourselves for watching the frogs..."you might be a redneck if....you sit in the rain and watch the frogs play", etc., but the truth was that the frogs that day were a symbol of so many things---how horrible the droughts had been and how we finally had hope the drought would break being just two of those things. As it turned out, true drought relief was a few more months away, but the heavy rainfall and frogs that came out to play that day still served as a sign that good times would return. Sometimes in the midst of awful drought, frogs are such a good, positive sign that some sort of normalcy has returned. That's how I feel this year---things are so much more normal, weatherwise, than they have been in ages. Dawn
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I’m so glad I stumbled across this forum! I live in northeast Ohio in 3rd floor apartment building. I have a lot of outdoor plants including a small water feature with aquatic plants. I first discovered this little guy under a pillow on my outdoor bench about a month ago. Not wanting to disrupt him very much, I’ve kept an eye out for him and let him have free range. He has pretty much taken up residence in one of my potted plants, occasionally disappearing for a few days and then sure enough he shows up again. I try to leave the outside light on to attract bugs and have seen him out at night hopping around. This last week however we’ve had a dip in temperature and he seems to be less active. The plant he enjoys is sitting in a terra-cotta pot (it’s not actually planted in the pot if that makes sense) and he has been staying down inside the pot and not really coming out. I’m not sure if maybe I’m just not catching his activity at night any more or If the change in temp is slowing his activity. I don’t want to disrupt his natural instincts but I also have grown fond of him and don’t want him to stay put In this plant if he needs to move on in preparation for the winter. If he’s not coming out is he getting enough to eat? I also typically bring my plants in but obviously don’t want to kick him out so I will continue to let this plant stay out as long as possible. Does anyone have advice? Will he eventually leave when it gets cold enough? Is there anything I can do to create him a better space in the meantime? I’d appreciate any input! Thanks in advance!
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destany
15 years ago
Awww, poor guy! My husband hit a garter snake with the mower last week...
I don't have any frogs this year either, I found two of them when I mucked out the pond last weekend. Nasty, nasty, they didn't survive the winter, apparently.
catherinet
Original Author
15 years ago
I guess this one bothered me more because I have a little preform outside my bedroom window, and I'm always checking for the frogs. He was always there. :(
comettose
15 years ago
Sorry Catherine - I also get attached to my frogs. You will have to train the husband to de-frog the area before he mows, or better yet, mow the pond area yourself.

All five of my long term frogs made it through the winter and disappeared later. I fattened them up with earthworms. Also, this has been the longest and coldest spring I can remember and the summer insects have not kicked in. Only a few moths flying around the light at night. I think food is scarce still.

Also, for the past two winters the frogs have been up and down in my area as it has not been cold. We had many days the past two winters in the 60's and 70's for days on end. Despite the up and down of the frogs all winter they all emerged in spring (or were already up). There is little to eat it seems, and 3 left. I can hear a bullfrog chorus about 200 feet from my house where there is a freshwater marsh and pond. I had 4 male and 1 female frog so maybe they took off to find some lovin'. But my lady frog and one huge male were still here until just recently and both were getting supplemental worms, espcially the lady frog, since she would come right up to eat.

At one time I had one frog that I know was 8 inches long while sitting. He was a sight to see.

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